Time Flies

As each Friday rolls around, Benedict and I look at each other with amazement that another week has passed. This means that time goes quickly and my writing for this blog isn't as frequent as I would like. So here are a few quick updates:
* We may have had the last of the rain. Last weekend it poured and the maize looks like it will be a bountiful harvest. I'm still not used to the many months without rain. I like all the green so much - better than the brown and dust of the dry season.
* The truck business is going well. When we go by the parking lot in the evening, our hearts sing when we see as many as 20 huge trucks parked for the night, the twinkling lights on the Take-away, and know that the drivers are enjoying their evening at our place.
* The school has only 2 more weeks of the term. It has been a great term and the 60+ new students have adjusted well and love their new school. Our new teachers are dedicated and hard-working and we are so grateful for them.
* The Village looks like a garden with plants and vegetables that the mothers and children have planted. Recent visitors from the Provincial Education Office commented on the joy of the children and the beauty of the Village.
* This week a team from Calvary Christian Reform Church in Holland, MI will be coming for a few days. Starting in the middle of May we will be blessed with 8 teams through the summer - a big work, but a bigger joy.
Thank you for your prayers and gifts and interest in what God is doing here!

The African Cup

Recently Benedict and I were in Lusaka at the new mall that has recently opened downtown. To our surprise the actual African Cup that Zambia won a few weeks ago was on display. How I wish the kids from the Village could have been there! So we took pictures. Then we had 5 copies of one of them enlarged so that each of the classrooms could have a picture. We learned the song, “Romans 16:19.” The words are “be excellent at what is good, be innocent of evil. And the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet.” I hope that the picture serves as a reminder to the students to be excellent in all that they do.

My Friend Mary

Many of you who have visited Zambia have gotten to meet Mary Zulu. She is the wife of Pastor Zulu who does so much for our Village. They live in Liteta, a short distance away. Mary is one of my good Zambian friends. She is the chairperson of the Chimwemwe Ladies Club Executive Committee. She has been invaluable in that capacity, and feels very called to those women.

Mary and Kimberly have been doing outreach at Okada Community School, teaching Bible once a week. They have been doing this for several years.

But there are two new things I want to tell you about. Mary loves to read and as a young girl helped in her school library and was even put in charge of it. So this year, I asked if she would come to our school once or twice a week to be our school librarian. I didn’t even have to ask a second time. She is keeping the books organized. Once a week the Grades 3-8 come to the library to check out books. Mary picks out books and helps the classroom teachers in grades 1-2 with their classroom libraries. Yesterday she began what I hope will be a weekly story time. She went to the Grade 1 and then Grade 2 classes and read a story. It was a joy yesterday to see one class sitting under the big tree in our courtyard and a big smile on Mary’s face as she read to them using one of the big books that have been sent on a container!

She is a blessing to us!

Ever since Mary was a little girl she has wanted to ride a horse. Even now she loves reading Benedict’s Louis L’amour western stories. Mary has shared that she had prayed what she thought was an impossible prayer – that one day she would be able to ride a horse. So when Sena started riding and got a horse, Mary was excited and asked Sena right away if she would be able to ride. As you can see from the picture, Mary was so thrilled. What a God we serve who even gives gifts like horseback riding to his children!